Dear Editor:
RE: With one councillor absent, Centre Wellington council can’t even pass agenda, April 22.
At the beginning of the April 19 meeting of Centre Wellington’s committee of the whole meeting, councillor Kirk McElwain asked the resolutions attached to an agenda item be broken into two.
He wanted to see the resolutions supporting the County of Wellington’s 10-year capital plan as it related to housing broken away from the resolution to have the Healthy Growth Committee (HGC) report on the shortage of attainable housing in Centre Wellington.
In last week’s Advertiser article, McElwain is quoted as saying he “might have supported attainable housing, too.” This is questionable because he makes it clear when speaking to other media he was not prepared to support having the HGC report on attainable housing.
Mayor Kelly Linton, and councillors Ian MacRae and Neil Dunsmore all recognize attainable housing as an important issue that the township can impact.
It’s shocking to think there was an intention to silence a citizen’s advisory committee, which has no power but to report and make recommendations to council for council’s own consideration. This is tantamount to silencing a citizen.
Perhaps it was also telling something was amiss, when early in the meeting Linton thanked staff for their ongoing efforts to adapt to changes required due to COVID-19 and in a show of appreciation MacRae and Dunsmore applauded while councillors McElwain, Stephen Kitras and Bob Foster sat stone-faced.
Teresa Gregg,
Fergus